If you like variety, travel, and working in small teams for something utterly beautiful, read on!

Choirs Aotearoa NZ (CANZ) is a thriving arts organisation and music producer. With long-standing trustees retiring or rotating, we have up to three vacancies on our board. If you have experience in the areas of : education, arts administration, corporate business, intercultural interests, or general governance and leadership experience, we would like to hear from you!

Choirs Aotearoa NZ (CANZ) is a thriving arts organisation and music producer. With long-standing trustees retiring or rotating, we have up to three vacancies on our board. If you have experience in the areas of : education, arts administration, corporate business, intercultural interests, or general governance and leadership experience, we would like to hear from you!

Choirs Aotearoa NZ (CANZ) is a thriving arts organisation and music producer. With long-standing trustees retiring or rotating, we have up to three vacancies on our board. If you have experience in the areas of : education, arts administration, corporate business, intercultural interests, or general governance and leadership experience, we would like to hear from you!

These moving, evocative and innovative performances are the result of ambitious risk-taking and great sensitivity to the subject matter

Celebrated New Zealand choir director Dr Karen Grylls CNZM has announced that 2024 will be her final year as Artistic Director for Choirs Aotearoa New Zealand (CANZ) – the body that manages the country’s four national choirs – as she signals a shift to a new role as Artistic Director Emerita.

Elizabeth Kerr at Five Lines, and Peter Menchen at Middle-C attended our final ‘Reimaging Mozart’ concert in Wellington, and provided these stunning reviews!

We are thrilled to announce that Dr Karen Grylls, the esteemed Artistic Director of Choirs Aotearoa New Zealand, has been recognised in the King’s Birthday Honours as a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit (CNZM) for her exceptional contributions to the world of choral music.

Your role will be to manage the well-being and welfare of the iconic New Zealand Secondary Students’ Choir on courses and tours around New Zealand and overseas.

I am truly delighted to share our 2023 season Reimagine… another exciting year for Voices New Zealand. Our collaborations with Chamber Music NZ, the NZSO, APO and with Stage Director Jacqui Coates, as well as our self-curated tours make for a fine artistic experience for our singers and for you, our audience.

Aotearoa’s youngest national choir, the New Zealand Secondary Students’ Choir (NZSSC) won the title of Children’s Choir of the World at last night’s prestigious Llangollen Eisteddfod in Wales

Before we embark on our Southern Stars tour, find out more about one of our singers from Nelson!

An interview with alumnus Manaia Glassey-Ohlson on his career since leaving our choir

Our 2022 season is here, bigger and more ambitious than ever

If you like variety, travel, and working in small teams for something utterly beautiful, read on!

Just in time for the festive season, we’re proud to present ‘Follow That Star’, a southern hemisphere Christmas collection of New Zealand Choral Music. In the midst of the pandemic, six New Zealand composers (five are represented here) were commissioned by Voices New Zealand and Artistic Director, Karen Grylls, to reimagine familiar Christmas tunes. The […]

The Amplify Collective provides vital support for all three of our national choirs. Vocies NZ wouldn’t be able to do the work that we do with New Zealand singers without the generous support of our Amplifiers.

Closing date: Wednesday 19 January 2022

Thank you to the many individuals and choirs who have supported this initiative and ordered masks over the past 8 months.

We are no longer accepting individual orders – the minimum order is now 8 masks.

If you are a choir or group wanting a large number, please contact us directly before ordering as we may need to have them made specially, which could take some time.

Our July 2021 newsletter

Our July 2021 Newsletter

Choirs Aotearoa New Zealand Foundation – new members sought

In October last year, we offered 56 fantastic young singers a place in the NZSSC 2021-22.

In October last year, we offered 56 fantastic young singers a place in the NZSSC 2021-22.

We are now calling Auckland and Wellington based aspirational and professional singers to audition for the new 8-singer strong Voices Ensembles.

“No good opera plot can be sensible, for people do not sing when they are feeling sensible.”
– W.H. Auden

Composing for a large choir and a maximum of three instruments – that’s the challenge Choirs Aotearoa NZ is issuing to some adventurous Kiwi composers. It’s a perfect time for composers to try something new.   Concert plans are in disarray, thanks to the pandemic.  And they’re likely to continue to face disruptions for the […]

Compose Aotearoa! is a new national initiative to stimulate the creation of new and diverse New Zealand music for choirs. Designed as an annual competition facilitated by the national body managing our three national choirs, Choirs Aotearoa New Zealand Trust, Compose Aotearoa! will be a rewarding pathway for young as well as established composers to produce new work. […]

Choirs Aotearoa NZ (CANZ) continues to thrive and we are looking for new Trustees with specific skills.

New conducting roles for New Zealand’s premier choir The next step in nurturing conductor talent Choirs Aotearoa NZ is delighted to announce the establishment of four new Associate Conductors of premier national chamber choir Voices New Zealand, Auckland-based Nicholas Forbes, Fiona Wilson, Rowan Johnston, and Wellington-based Isaac Stone. Associate Conductors will engage in our regional development activities and will also support the […]

Hello from the other side! Kia ora whānau Hoping this newsletter find you all safe and well, and for those in NZ that Level 2 has brought a chance to return to some normality.  Here at Choirs NZ we worked from home throughout lockdown to keep the fires burning. In this newsletter we’re farewelling our 2017-2019 […]

Kia ora friends of our national choirs,

Are you a conductor or vocal coach and want to take your craft to the next level? VOICES is now accepting registrations for two new internship programmes in CONDUCTING and VOCAL COACHING. Find out more here… Application deadline is 17 March.

Concert Review – New Zealand Secondary Students’ Choir, Directed by Sue Densem, St John’s Cathedral, Napier, Tuesday, 21 January. Reviewed by Peter Williams It was a great pleasure to have the NZSSC back in Hawke’s Bay, remembering their superb concert here two years ago. A new conductor this time, the exuberant Sue Densem who drew […]

Standing on Marine Parade before this concert, a calm green/blue sea, gulls and a dark-lined horizon, I wondered how on earth a wholeness could be created out of the great risotto of influences identified in the programme notes. From sea serpents, whales, Mother Theresa, Māori, Finnish, Indonesian cultures, waka made of human bones, and so much more. […]

On a 9 city tour with Chamber Music New Zealand, New Zealand’s premier national chamber choir performs a stunning musical reminder of the beauty and importance of our oceans.

ST Paul’s Cathedral was the venue for Voices New Zealand’s midwinter Yulefest recital entitled ‘‘Follow the Star’’.

We hear so much about the country’s top sports teams, but I was delighted to review Saturday’s Dunedin performance by one of New Zealand’s international award winning choirs.

Carson Taare from Palmerston North Boys High School and Elizabeth Hayman from St Cuthberts College are our choir leaders for 2019/20.

Our new director wanted to be a ballerina. Thank goodness she changed her mind. We catch up with Sue Densem for a quick-fire round of questions and feel exhausted hearing about her many achievements.

After an Australasian-wide search, Christchurch-born Susan Densem was today appointed to role of Music Director of the New Zealand Secondary Students’ Choir (NZSSC).

It’s been talked about for a long time and now finally, New Zealand’s three national choirs, Voices New Zealand, NZ Youth Choir and New Zealand Secondary Students Choir (NZSSC), are to merge under one governing body. NZSSC, the prestigious national choir for 14-18 year olds, is joining Choirs Aotearoa New Zealand, the arts trust that promotes vocal excellence and already governs the other two national choirs.

It’s been talked about for a long time and now finally, NZSSC is joining New Zealand’s two other national choirs  and will merge under one governing body, Choirs Aotearoa New Zealand.

Dr Andrew Withington, the choir’s director and conductor, yesterday announced he will be stepping down from his role with the national choir. After ten years leading this internationally celebrated choir, Andrew is leaving for new adventures at the conclusion of the 2017-2018 choir cycle.

The New Zealand Secondary Students Choir, our national choir for 14 to 18 year olds, is heading overseas for a two-week tour of Hong Kong and Shanghai. Before they go, Auckland is in for a treat with a farewell concert on Saturday 7 July.

Last week the Auckland Philharmonia premiered FACE, a new work commissioned from Ross Harris. The piece was inspired by the story of Sir Harold Gillies, the New Zealander who became the father of plastic surgery and who, along with several other New Zealand surgeons treated the disfiguring facial injuries sustained by soldiers during World War I.

The APO and VOICES NZ perform NZ composer Ross Harris’s new work, Face.

“One sensed justifiable pride when Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra CEO Barbara Glaser announced the Enigma concert had drawn a full house and, best of all, the programme included a major commission, shared with the BBC, ” writes William Dart.

For one member of the New Zealand Secondary Students Choir, our prestigious national choir for 14-18 year olds, singing at the official ANZAC Day commemoration will have extra special meaning. Tawa College student Kaylim Tyson-Nathan’s great-grandfather, Ned Nathan, fought in the 28th Maori Battalion and was seriously injured, losing an eye, while defending Crete’s Maleme Airfield in 1941.

Since 1998, Voices New Zealand Chamber Choir has performed, rehearsed and trained to deliver the most excellent choral singing in this country and on occasion, overseas. From a professionally run choir to a truly professional ensemble under Karen Grylls’ inspiring leadership, VOICES is turning 20 and now we have the opportunity to put the icing on the birthday cake – a professional European tour!

This is a dream tour and we hope you can help us make this dream come true.

“The King’s Singers sextet were good-humoured, supremely talented, effortlessly accomplished, confident and gracious. Voices New Zealand was impeccably supportive, balancing the sextet and reinforcing the climax of the chosen works. The two groups were complementary, symphonious – superb.

It was a refined, inspiring, entertaining evening – a precise, crystalline, perfect concert.”- Stephen Gibbs

Our Artistic Director reflects on the 20th anniversary of VOICES in context of the upcoming concert with The King’s Singers. The above photograph shows Karen and VOICES at a 2002 concert in Christchurch.

Seventeen-year-olds Amelia Foster and Greta Healy-Melhuish didn’t realise the significance of the New Zealand Secondary Students Choir’s upcoming concert at Waipu Cathedral on 20 January…

Hawkes Bay and Manawatu audiences are in for a treat this summer with the New Zealand Secondary Students Choir set to perform two concerts in the regions.

You can now pick and mix your favourite VOICES concerts for next year and SAVE!

NZ Herald’s William Dart reviews the latest VOICES CD, ‘Requiem for the fallen’

The best choral voices in New Zealand and one of Britain’s greatest musical exports unite for two concerts

Check out the interview in our latest newsletter with collaborative pianist Rachel Fuller, who will feature in our upcoming Salut Printemps concerts.
“Every day of my career has been different – and I love it that way!” Rachel

The commissioning of challenging new work is essential in a genre that can at times feel safely, beautifully two-dimensional, and The Unusual Silence is a commission Grylls and Voices New Zealand can be thoroughly proud of.  

The Unusual Silence, Voices New Zealand Chamber Choir’s WWI commemoration, was a powerful and reverberant experience in the marble halls of Auckland Museum.

It’s a rare opportunity to see one of our national choirs perform outdoors; even more special if it’s part of the opening day celebrations for SCAPE Public Art. Amidst a sea of excited children and their families, the New Zealand Secondary Students Choir will give a vibrant, multicultural performance at the Margaret Mahy Playground, 11am, 7 October.

A ‘stunningly impressive’ performance of Ross Harris’s WWI commemoration piece has resulted in a new CD, featuring VOICES NZ, Horomona Hero and the New Zealand String Quartet conducted by Karen Grylls.

….the 24 singers of Voices NZ Chamber Choir displaying the vocal heft of three times that number….

For some time now we have been thinking about what VOICES is, the works we sing and where we come from. This process has resulted in a new unique identity, a logo that we hope you too will enjoy.

From 8-13 July, the 60 members of the New Zealand Secondary Students Choir will come together in Auckland for six days of intensive rehearsals and workshops, culminating in a very special concert with their ‘big cousins’ of the choir world, the New Zealand Youth Choir.

After an intense nationwide audition process late last year, the New Zealand Secondary Students Choir has recently announced its new line-up of members for the 2017/2018 cycle.

Dr Karen Grylls has been re-appointed as Artistic Director for Voices New Zealand Chamber Choir (VOICES) and The New Zealand Youth Choir (NZYC) while newcomer and Wellingtonian Michael Stewart was appointed as NZYC’s new Deputy Music Director.

Dame Kiri Te Kanawa performs with Voices New Zealand Chamber Choir at the Michael Fowler Centre, March 13 2016, reviewed by John Button of the Dominion Post.

In festival’s homegrown highlight, orchestra and voices give rich offering of oratorio’s message of peace.

In a nutshell, as the Festival brochure put it, Ata Reira promised an evening of award-winning choirs, majestic voices and Te Reo Maori in song. Both separately and together, Voices New Zealand Chamber Choir and the New Zealand Youth Choir delivered all this in a choral celebration of light … and much more.

“..a fascinating and lovingly prepared programme which made a strong and delightful impression..”

There was magic spun from Voices New Zealand Chamber Choir led by distinguished conductor Karen Grylls in their concert at St Matthew-in-the-City in Auckland, NZ last night. A midwinter Yulefest celebrating Christmas with music from both northern and southern hemispheres including a significant number of NZ composers. The theme for the selection was Follow the Star, the North Star leading the Wise Men to the nativity and the stars of our very own star cluster Matariki.

In 2020 we welcome Louise as our Manager, and the new Manager of the NZ Youth Choir, to the Choirs Aotearoa NZ whānau. Louise has over 10 years working in Arts Management in a variety of fields. She gained a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre Studies from Otago University before beginning her career as Stage Manager […]

Kia ora friends of our national choirs,

CANZ seeks to protect and honour the national taonga of Te Ao Māori both when we perform with our national choirs and in our day to day operations. We aim to: – increase our usage of Te Reo Māori in our daily operations, publications and concerts – publish an Interculturalism Policy – develop and enhance […]

CANZ seeks to protect and honour the national taonga of Te Ao Māori both when we perform with our national choirs and in our day to day operations. We aim to: – increase our usage of Te Reo Māori in our daily operations, publications and concerts – publish an Interculturalism Policy – develop and enhance […]

CANZ seeks to protect and honour the national taonga of Te Ao Māori both when we perform with our national choirs and in our day to day operations. We aim to: – Increase our usage of Te Reo Māori in our daily operations, publications and concerts – Publish an Interculturalism Policy – Develop and enhance […]

Taonga Moana is heading to the mainland, the Festival of Colour in Wanaka for a one-night only concert on 14 April. “For Voices New Zealand, Taonga Moana represents a significant moment in their performing career. When I founded the choir in 1998, the aspiration was to create a Chamber Choir on a professional level, to be visible alongside […]

Join the team behind our national choirs!

Our new production When Light Breaks is only a few weeks away, and we’re delighted to be working with acclaimed Opera Director (and NZ Youth Choir alumnus) Jacqueline Coats!

Originally from Taupō, Fergus Byett moved to Hamilton in 2019 to study Classical Performance (Piano) at the University of Waikato. With the support of a Sir Edmund Hillary Scholarship, he completed his undergraduate studies under Katherine Austin, and in 2023 he completed his Masters under Dr. Rae de Lisle. In the same year, Fergus won […]

Meet our newest addition to the CANZ family!

Join the team behind our national choirs!